Cavendish adds to impressive Tour de France for Sky

Sky added to what has already been an impressive 2012 Tour de France by winning stage 18 on Friday with Mark Cavendish. Bradley Wiggins, wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey, led the World Champion through the final bends into Brive-la-Gaillarde and punched the air in celebration when he crossed the line.

“We don’t want to be greedy, but we are here to perform and we are delivering,” sports director, Sean Yates explained. “There were still a number of stages where we could’ve chased the breakaway and had a chance of wins, but we haven’t done that. We’ve done everything we can to protect the jersey.”

An escape with Nicolas Roche (Ag2r), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) nearly stayed clear. Behind, though, Wiggins revved up to lead Cavendish to his second 2012 stage win. He promised Cavendish earlier in the day: “This one is for you”.

“We didn’t know it was going to be a sprint today, it was a hard stage, it could have been easy for my guys to cruise in after the mountains they’ve ridden,” Cavendish explained after the finish, in the cool video conference cabin.

“Yates said today let’s just take it easy, but I asked to have sprint. ‘Please can I have a sprint?’ Brad piped up, and said, ‘Yes, let’s sprint’.”

Wiggins led through a left-hand turn in the final kilometre. He eyed Roche, brought Cavendish close enough and eased up to watch the sprint. Edvald Boasson Hagen took over, went though a right turn and released Cavendish. Cavendish passed Sánchez, Roche and covered the last 250 metres at the head.

Cavendish won over Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), Wiggins threw up his right fist up and Roche held on for 12th.

Sharethrough (Mobile)

“He knows we’re here to win the Tour and where priorities are. That’s not to say that Bradley won’t take it upon himself to win a stage, as he did today and in previous days,” Yates said. “It shows, when it comes to the time, we are willing to contribute unless it conflicts with our goal to win the overall.”

Sky collected four stages so far this Tour with Chris Froome winning the summit finish to La Planche des Belles Filles, Wiggins winning the Besançon time trial and Cavendish’s in Tournai and in Brive-la-Gaillarde today. It only needs two more days before it can celebrate Great Britain’s first Tour de France win, both days – a time trial and a flat stage into Paris – suit its leaders.

Cavendish added: “As a British team being here, doing what we’re doing, I’m proud to be a part of that.”